Profiles in Public Integrity:

The Honorable Georgios Kaminis

Mayor of Athens, Greece

Born in New York City, Georgios Kaminis holds a degree in law from the University of
Athens School of Law, as well as a Diplome detudes approfondies and Doctorat dEtat en
Droit. He served as Assistant Greek Ombudsman, responsible for Human Rights, from 1998
to 2003. In May of 2003, Kaminis became the Greek Ombudsman after being unanimously
elected at a Presidents of Parliament roundtable meeting.
Kaminis was elected Mayor of Athens on November 14, 2010. Under the Mayors guidance,
Athens was awarded a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge Innovation Prize for its
online citizen engagement platform, SynAthina.
He is a member of organizations including the Association of Greek Constitutionalists and the
Hellenic Political Science Association. Apart from Athens, he has also lived in Osaka, Paris,
Madrid, and Heidelberg. Kaminis speaks Greek, English, Spanish, French, and German.

You were the Greek Ombudsman for years before you were elected Mayor of Athens. How
did this position inform your view of Athenss most important challenges? How has your
understanding of these issues helped you move forward with your reform agenda?
The main function of the office of Ombudsman is to mediate between citizens and the national and
municipal administrations. However, in the course of mediation efforts it was not uncommon for
citizens to claim corruption among the public servants handling their cases. My office did not have
the authority to investigate these allegations and I was legally required to refer them to the Inspector
Generals office if they had a shred of credibility - but they helped me understand how perplexing
procedures and a lack of transparency and external controls could conceal or even invite corruption.
I also realized that citizen distrust of public officials was much higher than I had anticipated.
Thus, when I took office, I knew that transparency would be our major weapon against corruption,
more potent than any set of intra-agency controls could be, even in the hands of persons with
unquestionable integrity. One of my first official acts was to require that all building permits be
posted on the citys official website. This was soon extended to include licenses for bars and
restaurants, including license to play music after-hours and to occupy public space with outdoor
tables. Then, I insisted that all municipal registries and records be digitized and integrated, so that all
actions, petitions, and documents left a traceable electronic mark. This drastically reduced the
possibilities for city employees to meddle with information.

Potential for corruption also factored into my administrations changes to the city governments
organizational chart. It was very important to clarify the powers of the various administrative units
within city government and to identify which unit had authority for which issue. Clarity in the citys
organization and ordinances would better define the duties of every single employee and would
leave little leeway for arbitrary discretion. This made potential corrupt practices easier to recognize.
Greece as a whole has faced a serious financial crisis for a few years now. Has this impacted
the way youve approached your plans for anti-corruption reforms?
The current functioning of Greeces political system has an obvious correlation with the state of our
economy. The spoils system, which is a form of corruption, largely defined the operations of the
public sector in Greece. Most public-sector hires were made with campaign promises in mind, rather
than the public interest. Politicians would resort to all sorts of technicalities to bypass procedures in
place to make hiring practices objective. The spoils system also extended to the award of public
contracts, where quid-pro-quo arrangements (including kickbacks) were more apparent. So, the
overall role of the State and the public sector, including local government, formed to accommodate
corrupt interests. Thus, the skills and qualifications of Athenss public-sector workforce largely did
not match the Citys needs and public works programs were not always useful to Athenians.
Most important, however, was a feeling of complete disregard for taxpayers money. Every interest
group laid a claim to it: union members seeking unnecessary overtime payment; municipal council
members (in both government and opposition) seeking more hires and special projects for their
constituents; artists with real or not-so-real projects seeking subsidies; to name but a few.
The Citys financial means were very limited, compared to those available to previous
administrations. We also had the burden of servicing large, preexisting loans. However, some
instances required large expenditures and we secured a commitment from the State to allocate
European Union funds to infrastructure projects in Athens managed by a municipal corporation. In
these cases we made the procurement procedures as open and transparent as possible. We consulted
the public with respect to procurement specifications, to ensure specifications were not tailored to
favor specific firms. Our main hiring procedurescurtailed by an overall hiring freeze imposed by
the national governmentwere also open. Independent committees would assess candidates formal
qualifications and interview them in public. Even other candidates could attend.
Our online budget-monitoring allowed users to watch the actual implementation of the municipal
budget in real time on a line-by-line basis. Beyond the importance of citizens knowing how their
money is managed, the platform imposed self-restraint on the administration itself, since any
discrepancy could and, most probably would, be spotted.

Youve implemented an impressive and comprehensive online database updated in real time
so that citizens can see the actions and expenditures of the Athens government and an
award-winning platform to connect Athenians to their government to make complaints and
participate in civic affairs. What is your next project to promote public integrity?
We are organizing some of the data already available online to be more easily searchable. For
example, we are trying to create a digital map of Athens containing information on the licensing of
bars and restaurants and on building permits. In its final form, anyone will be able to click on a spot
on the map and the corresponding license and building permit will appear. When this project is
finished, anyone, with a tablet or a smartphone, will be able to check a bar or restaurants license to
serve liquor, play music after-hours, etc.
Another project we're working on is a telephone hotline for corruption allegations, so that
allegations no longer have to go through the Mayor's office. We are trying to ensure the anonymity
and confidentiality of the complaint while preventing frivolous allegations. I must mention that we
were very impressed with the hotline established by Mexico City, presented at CAPIs Global Cities
conference. Moreover, Bloomberg Associates are providing us with significant technical assistance
in this area, among others, for which we are thankful.
You recently participated in CAPIs Global Cities: Joining Forces Against Corruption
conference, meeting with 13 other city delegations from around the world to discuss
corruption challenges and successes. Did you learn anything that will be of use as you
continue to tackle these problems in Athens?
The successful anti-corruption practices presented in the conference often involved the increased
participation of non-government actors, especially civil society, made possible or improved by the
use of digital technology. Digital technology can make government-related information easily
available to everyone in a way that cannot be retroactively altered for corrupt purposes. In the past,
corrupt officials had exclusive access to information and could hide, manipulate, alter, or destroy it.
When government actions are open, corruption is easier to spot and to challenge.
The task for political leaders is evident: involve outside actors, give them access to information,
show them their participation will make a difference, and spotlight the results of this participation to
attract broader participation. The delegations shared a commitment to openness and transparency
and the conference featured innovative, outside-the-box ways to achieve these goals. The conference
emboldened me to seek solutions within the framework of the law but outside conventional
methods. For all this I am thankful to the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity.